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Sanders, Trump et al: Partying Like It’s 1968

On this all can agree: Strange happenings are afoot in the 2016 presidential cycle, the kind that leave experts scratching their heads. Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, talk of a third-party run—we’ve never seen anything quite like it, right?

Except that we have. It happened in 1968, and if you are seeking precedents for this cycle, that year’s momentous presidential election is a good place to look. Here’s something further to consider: The 1968 race so shook up the political system that we’re still feeling its aftershocks today, more than a generation later. There is at least a chance this year’s race could become a similarly realigning campaign.

In 1968 as now, antiestablishment feelings were running high, fueled by unhappiness with the Vietnam War as well as racial tensions. Civil rights were a divisive issue then, much as immigration is a divisive issue now.

Read entire article at WSJ